Publisher's Summary

Ted Dakin was born in the 1930s in the Lancashire cotton town of Wigan. Far from living an idyll of times past, Ted grew up in a world of poverty, with a poor education at a tough Catholic school ruled by Owd Hector Wainwright's fist and cane. But the world he occupied was full of interesting people and amusing goings on.

In this delightful host of tales, he invokes the spirit of the time. He tells of skiving off Mass, of the extraordinary singer/coal miner Albert Crabtree, and of his dad: a reformed hypochondriac, self-taught herbalist, and boxing trainer. These nostalgic stories recreate the unity and values of a community and an age that is, sadly, long gone.